Make Prints You’ll Love

As I promised in the last post, here are some Easy Steps to take to help you create Your Story Prints that You will want to talk about and point to. Just so you Know.…All printing I refer to is INKJET. OK?

Beloved TIFF (or tif)

The TIFF file is used universally as a preferred image format. JPEGs are great but TIFFs are Better. TIFFs are also Bigger — take up more space on your hard drive than JPEGs. That is because JPEGs are LOSSY compressed so that they are smaller files and also lose data in the process. TIFFs can be saved without compression or with LOSSLESS compression — meaning bigger files and no data loss. When a JPEG is edited and saved the compression function throws out some of the data in the file. Do that enough times and your Memories (read > photos) turn to Mush. Nobody wants Mushy Memories. Here is what you do.

BTW — these are Screen Shots from Adobe Photoshop CS5. If you are using a Different Software, there should be similar choices you can make. Except Picasa — it won’t let you save a file as a TIFF.

File>Save as>Choose TIFF from the FORMAT drop down menu

You will then be given some TIFF Options like so:

These are the options I use. Compression>LZW is slight lossless compression which makes for somewhat smaller file sizes than None.

Click OK [but You knew that already didn’t You?].

Rename

This is a Good Time to Rename your file. I learned about this Naming Convention from Matthew Campagna of The Turning Gate.

The image of the Rose was captured by my spouse — Tom Bradley, June of 2003 in our garden. The file name the Camera gave it was 0046. Here is the lovely Rose’s name by another name (it will still be a Rose btw):

tb_20030614_British_Columbia_Home_Garden_Eglantine_Rose_0046.tif.

“tb” = photographer’s initials.

“20030614” = year/month/day.

“British_Columbia_Home_Garden_Eglantine_Rose”= description from broad to specific.

“0046”= file number assigned by Camera.

This type of file name is IMMENSELY searchable. Search by Photographer. Search by Date. Search by Place. Search by Subject. Search by File Number. There. Told YA.

Resolution

Let’s monkey with the resolution now. Don’t know about yours, but my Camera gives me JPEGs at a resolution of 72 ppi (that would be pixels per inch). I accidentally tried to print an image once at 72 ppi. It was a DISASTER. Not Recommended. Here is what you do:

Open the image then Image>Image Size

There. You See. What did I tell You. In the “Document Size” section Resolution = 72 pixels/inch. We should like to change that. For my printers [HP] I need 300 pixels/inch. Some other printers [Epson] want 360 ppi. Canon printers also want 300 ppi. The Resolution Info is from Fine Art Printing for Photographers by Uwe Steinmueller and Juergen Gulbins, 2nd edition. Good Book, I recommend it.

[Do the Math. In the above example Pixel Dimensions are Width: 3872 pixels, Height: 2592 pixels. If you divide the Width/Height in pixels by the Resolution of 72 pixels per inch — you arrive at the Document Size in inches. Go ahead. In the example below, Same Drill.]

Here’s how you make the change:

Make Sure the “Resample Image” box is UNchecked!

Then just enter the resolution your Printer wants into the —wait for it—Resolution box. Click OK. Done.

The last few steps Might Be: Crop, Saturation boost (keep it small), Contrast boost (keep it small). You might decide none of those are needed. Great.

Print YOUR Image. Put it up on the WALL or Magnet it to the FRIDGE. TELLYOURSTORY. REMEMBER.